The parents of an ill 5-year-old British boy suffering from a brain tumor are under arrest and the child is receiving medical care at a Spanish hospital after police in that country stopped their car Saturday and ended a furious two-day international manhunt, authorities said.
The ill boy, Ashya King, was found safe with “no visible signs of distress” after police in the Malaga region of Spain pulled over their Hyundai at just before 10 p.m. local time, Hampshire constable Chris Shead told reporters. It is unknown why his parents, Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, took the child, whose condition requires complex care that police feared the couple would be unable to safely provide on their own.
"There are no winners in this situation, but thankfully, we have found Ashya,” Shead said at a news conference. “Obviously we now need to speak to those parents to determine exactly what was the motivation behind them taking Ashya.” The parents were arrested on an international warrant for neglect. The parents took the boy from Southampton General Hospital in the U.K. on Thursday, police said, and there were serious concerns for the boy’s life if he went too long without professional treatment.